


I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold

by everythingispoetry



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dimension Travel, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Saving the World, Time Skips, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-15
Updated: 2013-03-15
Packaged: 2017-12-05 08:58:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/721253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingispoetry/pseuds/everythingispoetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony has been right the whole time. A years-later fix-it for <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/654425">Keep me searchin' for a heart of gold</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Keep me searchin' for a heart of gold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/654425) by [everythingispoetry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingispoetry/pseuds/everythingispoetry). 



> "Part 2" of my fill for [ this prompt](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/13316.html?thread=31526148#t31526148). I promised to write a fix-it, so here it is. I hope you'll enjoy :) I'd love if you let me know!

The other Steve was right, but it takes the world some time to catch up.

Sixty years, sixty one, to be exact, after the day when his alternative self has appeared on the balcony, Steve was approached by one of S.H.I.E.L.D. consultants, _Doctor_ – a man whose name Steve will remember for always but will never share with anyone, one of the most brilliant and extraordinary people he’s met in over a hundred years he’s lived _after_ – who informs him he managed to construct a time machine that is very likely going to work.

Steve’s been lurking around the time-travel research for decades, for obvious reasons, and everyone with high enough clearance knows this. He isn’t _a man out of time_ anymore, but since he has – a story with time-skipping, people just figure it is interesting to him. _Interesting_.

Agreeing eagerly to be the first one to try out the machine, Steve doesn’t know how the time travel works exactly, but he is willing to give it a try. He is told he can go back to any point in the past that he chooses and he knows the answer straight away.

‘June 2012,’ he replies without hesitation.

Doctor’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise; Steve can guess they all think he wants to go back to forties, but – he doesn’t think he could fit there. His companions wouldn’t understand. He is too used to a different kind of life, too, and not sure if he could manage to stay for a long time in a world without all the technical inventions; that’s a very ironic reversal of what has happened before.

He says goodbye to everyone who can be called a colleague or a friend – a very few people, an unsurprisingly small group – and lets himself go with the flow

 

 

Steve wakes up on June 20, 2012, and the first thing he does is call Fury and tell him than he is going to stay with Peggy for some time. The Director seems surprised by that, but reluctantly agrees, saying that he’s earned that privilege. Steve is glad there aren’t any problems. He packs his bag and flies to the UK and spends a month constantly at Peggy’s side, catching her in a mental state good enough that she remembers him, something he’s never managed to do before, being too absorbed with world-saving.

If the Doctor’s predictions were right, everything is going to happen the same way unless Steve changes the events. Doc didn’t have any qualms about letting Steve do what he wants. No no-interference rule. Maybe the man was crazy, being so lenient about the whole universe’s timeline, but Steve can’t bring himself to care.

It will be almost two years before Peggy dies, so Steve decides to bring her back to the US and have someone take care of here there, close to him. He has enough money to pay for any services that might be needed, and a lot of space in his flat, so it should work.

Fury is speechless for a few minutes when Steve tells him about his plans, but he can’t really forbid anything, so a few days later Steve and Peggy fly back to the USA. Steve has never felt so good, the grim determination flowing through his veins, the persistent urge to make everything _right_ finally starting to be sated.

The next thing he does, he arranges his meeting with _Anthony_ the same way he did before, and it’s a perfect déjà vu when he goes to the hospital. He talks with the doctors, shares his reasons for being there, the doctor nods gravely, all like a video on repeat. Steve is led to a common room, then is asked to wait by one of the tables and it takes them a few minutes to fetch _Anthony_. The man – he looks so different, from how he was the last time Steve has seen him, over a decade in future, so much younger than the memories.

Huh, that’s beautifully confusing.

‘Cap,’ he greets Steve with the voice and the easiness of posture of the previous time.

‘Tony,’ Steve replies nonchalantly, a smile irresistibly crawling onto his face. Tony freezes, his face is immediately guarded and distant, and he _stares_. Steve bites his lip and holds the gaze. After a few long moments, he leans over and whispers into Tony’s ear these words:

‘Say hello to Toni for me, next time you see her, you lucky bastard. I’ve only met my Steve once – or I will have met in about fifty years.’

The Steve moves a few steps away, to giving Tony space and to leave the doctors and nurses unsuspicious. Tony stares at him for a few more moments, seemingly impassive, but Steve knows how to read the man already; he can tell the slightest change in how Tony is holding himself, a faintest gleam of hope in his eyes that he’s learned to conceal pretty well.

‘I thought you were a man from the past,’ Tony states in the end, in a hushed voice, not audible to anyone but Steve who smiles even wider, his cheeks are almost starting to hurt.

‘Would it blow you mind if I said I am, somehow, a man from the past _and_ a man from the future – simultaneously?’

‘Hope not,’ Tony replies instantly. ‘I bet you’ve got _a lot_ to tell me that will be crazier than that.’

‘Well, you are not very wrong,’ Steve admits strongly and clamps his hand on Tony’s shoulder reassuringly. ‘I’m getting you out of this place as soon as possible. And I don’t care about the doctors or Stane. We’ll get you back in the game and we’ll _make a difference_.’

‘Why – why are you so… fierce about all this?’ Tony asks quietly, but it’s not subdued.

‘Can you imagine how everything happened the last time, when I didn’t believe you, like the rest of the world?’

Tony’s eyes darken in understanding.

‘Exactly,’ Steve concludes. ‘Just wait.’

 

 

 

It turns out that when you are Captain America and a man with almost 130 years of experience in dealing with people, everything is achievable; it’s not even that difficult to take Tony out of the facility since he could have been released earlier if someone vouched for him and promised to take care of him – instead of paying money to the institution. It takes a month and Steve comes to see Tony ever second day, persuading the doctors that he can take care of his _new friend_ with whom he instantly connected; every other day he spends at home with Peggy and dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D.

When Tony is finally let out, things start to happen more quickly, like in that saying about a pebble that can start and avalanche.

Steve buys a bigger apartment, since his old is not very suited for four people – there is always a nurse living with them who takes care of Peggy, these days – and that’s how it _really_ starts.

Steve feeds Tony _safe_ foods, no fucking rice, because the man is far too skinny for his own good, and drags him out for runs and to the gym to get him back in a good physical state; Tony whines a lot, of course he does, but there’s always a playful gleam in his eyes. Tony spends most of his days studying, though, catching up on all the things he’s missed through the years and Steve decides that his mental capabilities are downright scary.

Tony turns one of the rooms into his workshop, too, and even if it’s a far call from what he was used to _before_ – it’s a good start. He builds engines and motherboards and robots, testing out his new knowledge; it turns out that muscle memory helps out a real lot, and Tony’s hands never lost their amazing precision.

The other Avengers come by and meet Tony, but the truth stays between Steve and him.

Since the world has mostly forgotten about Tony Stark, there are no problems with going out; Steve drags them to his favorite Thai place at least once a week and Tony returns the favor when he discovers that the burger joint he used to love is still there. They try out new routes while running, go to cinema and to museums, visit strange and obscure places from both their pasts and Steve’s past-future.

It’s a year before Tony says he is ready to act, and then things only accelerate more. He’s been pretending to take his medicine and going to regular check-ups with psychiatrist; he is finally declared _compos mentis_ and after a short but fierce legal battle takes over his business. Steve is _very_ happy seeing Stane thrown down his usurped throne.

Tony – he is a futurist, and he knows an incredible amount of things that Toni has told him, so Steve doesn’t have any problem with revealing a lot about the _future_ so that Tony can _act_. And he does, not letting Steve down: he digs out the old Arc Reactor specs and builds a thing that provides a free clean energy – something that hasn’t happened until a few decades later, the previous time. He builds himself a suit of armor and Steve drags him into the superhero squad and it _finally_ feels right. He shares his story for the whole world to consider and tells it between the lines that he isn’t doing anything because he has to, he does it all because he wants to. He is not a prisoner anymore.

Peggy dies smiling. Steve and Tony both cry like babies, but neither of them hides the tears. Then they move to newly built Stark Tower, followed by the other Avengers, and everything works out.

 

 

Even if he is sometimes nostalgic, thinking about the few people in other times that he’s cared about, Steve doesn’t feel bittersweet about what he’s chosen to abandon. He’s had enough time to understand that somehow, by a fate’s joke, it was neither his life in the past nor in the distant future that could make him happy because something always felt displaced. Unbalanced. _Third time’s the charm._

And Tony, Tony, Tony, he is the only one brilliant enough, in the right time and place, to change the world into what it _should be_ , and Steve is happy to be here - and he will stay here, by the man’s side.

He’s found the missing piece.

 

 

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Keep me searchin' for a heart of gold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/654425) by [everythingispoetry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingispoetry/pseuds/everythingispoetry)




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